Assessment

Kansas Assessment Program
The goal of the Kansas assessment program is high student performance on test items derived from the Kansas curricular standards. Kansas curricular standards have been defined for the academic areas tested: mathematics, reading, science, social studies, and writing. It is intended that these standards be important components of local curriculum, instruction, and staff development, as well as the focus of state assessment. When local curriculum goals and objectives, classroom instruction, and staff development include the Kansas curricular standards, which match the Kansas state assessments, then "alignment" is achieved. This alignment is an important part of reaching the goal of higher student performance. The closer the alignment among all components, the more likely that student achievement will rise. Alignment is a process undertaken at the local level.

As part of alignment of standards, curriculum instruction, staff development, and the state assessment, Spring Hill School District attends to particular elements of the state assessments, such as the:

expectations for what students should know and be able to do as identified in the Kansas curricular standards and the need to incorporate those expectations into the local curriculum

instructional methods and classroom activities that support student achievement of the state and local curriculum standards

value of having multiple comparable measures which provide an enhanced picture of student performance

At the high school, students in the 10th grade will take the English Language Arts and the Mathematics state assessment annually. 11th grade students will take the History/Government and the Science state assessment annually.

MAP (Measure of Academic Progress)

NWEA Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) are state-aligned computerized adaptive assessments that provide accurate, useful information about student achievement and growth. At the high school, we test all students in the fall to assist us in identifying strengths and weaknesses in student understanding and application of our instructional material.We test all students once again in the early Spring to assess their progress.

NWEA believes in an assessment that:

Gives a child the chance for success

Students find engaging

Respects classroom time

Provides useful information

MAP tests provide highly accurate results that we use to identify the skills and concepts individual students have learned.

Diagnose instructional needs

Monitor academic growth over time

Make data-driven decisions at the classroom, school, and district levels

Place new students into appropriate instructional programs

The assessment itself is unique in that it adapts to the student's ability, accurately measuring what a child knows and needs to learn. In addition, MAP tests measure academic growth over time, independent of grade level or age. Most importantly, the results educators receive have practical application to teaching and learning.